The M25, already in its F1 specification. At the wheel, Emilio de Villota, the driver who would take the M25 to brief periods of success in its short career as a racing car. Credits: Unattributed
Car Profiles

The Many Lives of the McLaren M25

Avatar photoLorenzo Baer

ALLIANCES NEVER LAST FOREVER

Almost synonymous with the bubbling motorsport scene of the early 1970s, Bruce McLaren Motor Racing was what one might consider a manufacturer that knew how to precisely balance its resources, being able to simultaneously maintain successful operations in Formula 1, Formula Indy/USAC, Formula 5000 and the Can-Am.

While McLaren itself is credited with a large share of the success of these pioneering years, a wide range of factors were behind these accomplishments, chief among them a strategic partnership that had energized and precisely delimited the manufacturer’s limits and capabilities: the agreement with Trojan Ltd., a small car builder from Surrey (UK), which had paved the way for some of McLaren’s most fortunate motorsport projects to date.

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Lorenzo Baer
Passionate about motorsport from the 60s and 70s, Lorenzo has a special affection for the sub-Formula 1 categories, such as F2, F3 and F. Junior, which are, at the same time, the 'ugly ducklings' of these decades, but are also the categories that better represent the essence of motorsport during this period. He holds a deep appreciation for drivers like Clark or Rindt, who dominated the premier category of motorsport, returning sporadically to their origins in F2, to compete and, simultaneously, teach new generations of what single-seater racing was all about. Lorenzo believes this was a time of innocence in motorsport, without a doubt, where the most important thing was to race.
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